 "A miner is transported on a stretcher by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa. AP")
South Africa’s Buffelsfontein Gold Mine has become the center of a storm.
Civic groups say at least 100 miners have died in an abandoned gold mine and that hundreds of others remain trapped deep underground.
Authorities, on the other hand, say that the men can come out at any time but fear being arrested.
Let’s take a closer look:
What do we know?
The two sides are sticking to their versions.
Groups representing the miners say they are trapped deep underground in one of South Africa’s deepest mines. They say a proper rescue operation should have commenced months ago.
They claim 100 have died of starvation or dehydration and that 500 others remain trapped
Authorities say the men were illegally mining at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine and that they tried to force them out by cutting off their food and water supplies from the surface.
They say the men can simply come out of the mine.
It’s not clear exactly how long the miners have been underground near the town of Stilfontein, about 150 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. But it’s certain they have been there since at least November, when police first tried to force them out. Some members of the local community say their relatives have been trapped for nearly six months, since July.
Illegal mining is common in parts of gold-rich South Africa where companies close down mines that are no longer profitable, leaving informal miners to illegally enter them to try and find leftover deposits.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsLarge groups often go underground for months to maximiSe their profits, taking food, water, generators and other equipment with them, but also relying on others on the surface to send down more supplies.
What are authorities doing?
Police tried to force the miners out last year by cutting of their supplies and dismantling ropes they used to climb down into the mine and a pulley system used for supplies. A Cabinet minister said the aim was to “smoke them out” and the government would not send help because they were “criminals.”
That tactic is now being fiercely criticised by rights groups. Some of them won a court case in December forcing police and provincial authorities to allow food, water and medicine to be sent down to the miners again. But they say the supplies are not enough for all those who are trapped.
Some miners have emerged in the last two months and been arrested. Police says that shows they can come out. But a spokesman for the Mining Affected Communities United in Action group, which is representing the miners and their families, said the miners who did escape undertook a treacherous days-long journey underground to a different shaft, and many are too weak to do that.
The police operation at Stilfontein last year was part of a countrywide crackdown on mining gangs known as “zama zamas,” or hustlers in the Zulu language, that have long been a problem in South Africa. The government estimates that there are about 6,000 abandoned mines and that close to $1 billion is lost annually in revenue due to illicit mining.
What about recent events?
A community-led rescue effort began bringing survivors and bodies out of the Buffelsfontein mine on Friday, while authorities started an official rescue and recovery effort using a cage lowered into the mine.
More than 20 bodies have been recovered and more than 30 survivors have been brought out, police said.
But it could take weeks to rescue survivors and bring bodies out as the cage can fit less than 10 people. Authorities have also said no official rescue personnel will go down into the mine because it is extremely dangerous.
A volunteer from the community who is familiar with the mine has been handling the cage as it is dropped deep underground_._
With inputs from agencies